


Grounding

by DeanCasAndSammy



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Fluff and Angst, M/M, Possession, Reunions, Telepathy, The Voice of Night Vale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-24
Updated: 2015-04-24
Packaged: 2018-03-25 13:25:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3812155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeanCasAndSammy/pseuds/DeanCasAndSammy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Voice of Night Vale can feel itself falling apart, along with its Host, and it's had enough.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Grounding

It was strange, to be sentient. It was exhilarating, realising the power that could be achieved, and that realisation turned from exhilarating to horrifying in less than a split second.

Which is why, as a general rule, sentient towns tended to ground themselves in Hosts. Specific, chosen Hosts, that they manipulated their town to get.

But sometimes, the Hosts weren't enough.

The Voice could feel its grip slipping, could feel the grasp on its own sanity loosening. It shuddered and burrowed further inside its Host, desperately trying to keep control for a little while longer, until it could find something else to ground it to reality.

The hatred its Host had for Desert Bluffs helped. It reminded the Voice of the danger, of what could happen if it lost it's grip on reality and relished in the power it held.

When the Scientist had come, the Voice felt a tremor through the entire town, that reverberated inside it's Host.

_"And I fell in love instantly..."_

This was it. This was that little extra the Voice had needed to ground itself. It felt itself settle comfortably inside its Host, the Hosts many tattoos glowing as the Voice felt itself become fixed and permanent, and slowly set about changing the Scientist, making him more durable, able to survive forever, like the Voice and its Host.

Even when everything started to go wrong, the Voice held. When the Smiling God, that entity that had once been the Voice of Desert Bluffs, attempted to ruin everything the Voice had, when the Scientist left, when the Voice felt its Host slowly fall apart from the inside out...through all this, the Voice held on, even as it felt itself travel back down the dangerous route it had narrowly escaped.

The Voice and its Host needed their Scientist, they needed him to keep them together, to keep them sane, and the longer he was away, the further they slipped.

And the Voice had had enough.

........................................................................................................................................................

Cecil woke with a shudder, instinctively reaching for his watch to check the time. It was dark, but that didn't mean anything. For all he knew, today could be a sunless day. He felt another shudder rip through him, then the room was lit by a faint glow.

**I have had enough, Host. Have you?**

Cecil relaxed once he recognised the deep, soothing tones echoing in his head. _I can feel it._ He replied. _We're falling apart again, aren't we?_

The Voice hummed, a wordless agreement. **Will you allow me control, Host?**

Cecil gave it, simply relaxing and closing his eyes. His tattoos shone brightly, and his third eye opened, blazing a deep purple. Shrinking into the back of his own mind, Cecil felt the Voice stretch tendrils of power across endless universes, and speak. The Voice didn't comfort, or soothe, as was the norm. It _demanded_. Fierce, untamed, angry demands echoing through everything.

Cecil tensed as the Voice receded back into him, anxiously biting his lip. _Did it work?_

**You tell me, Host. You tell me.**

The door opened, and Cecil's lilac eyes shot to his bedroom doorway in fear. There was the sound of quick, pounding footsteps, and then a figure in the doorway.

"Cecil?"

All three of Cecil's eyes widened as the glow from the tattoos gently cast light on the man in the doorway, and he flung himself at them, trying not to sob uncontrollably.

**_"Carlos! Carlos, my wonderful, perfect Scientist, you're home!"_ **

Cecil couldn't bring himself to care that the Voice was speaking in front of Carlos. Now wasn't a time for carefully hidden secrets. Now was a time to rejoice in the slow feeling of pieces coming back together, or scattered and frayed edges of consciousness stretching and replenishing themselves.

**_"Oh, my Scientist, I missed you! Please...Please...stay...stay with us..."_ **

Cecil felt Carlos' strong arms around him, holding him up, and felt a bemused smile press against his hair.

"Us, Ceec?"

All Cecil could do was nod blindly, burying his face in his Scientist's shirt and breathing in the acrid smell of sweat and dirt, with the underlying spice that was Carlos.

**_"We need you. Please don't leave us again...never again..."_ **

As Carlos tilted his head up with a gentle finger under his chin, Cecil looked at him lovingly and pleadingly with all three eyes, and saw understanding bloom on his beloved's face as he realised just what Cecil was.

The Scientist smiled and brushed his lips against his boyfriend's once, twice, three times, each kiss softer than the last. "I need you both too." he murmured, his arms tightening. "So don't worry about that, querido. Don't you worry about that again. It won't happen, I promise. You put yourself back together. I won't ever let you fall apart again, I'll be here for you. Always, Cecil. Always."

Cecil vaguely felt the mattress against his back, and realised that Carlos had carried him back to the bed and laid him down, pressing as close as humanly possible, whispering sweet words in his ear and stroking fingers through his blond hair, caressing his face, holding him so perfectly.

His third eye closed, and Cecil buried his face in Carlos' shoulder, and finally let out all the tears he'd tried to hold in, overwhelmed by the feelings of peace, and healing, and pain, and joy.

And the Scientist held the Host, and healed his pain with only his existence and his presence, and the Voice was content to bask in the feeling of security, knowing that Night Vale was safe for as long as the Scientist remained.

And the Voice knew that he would.

**Author's Note:**

> My first fic for WTNV, and my first publication on AO3. Tell me what you think?


End file.
